Full scale replica of Noah's Ark may float into Seattle
A 3,000-ton full scale replica of Noah's ark is slated to travel all the way from the Netherlands to Brazil this summer.
The 410-foot, 2,500 ton ark is expected to travel on a barge 5,000 miles across the Atlantic to Brazil for the 2016 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
The ark will then stop at ports in Long Beach, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle, the director of Ark of Noah Foundation told KFMB.
Dutch carpenter Johan Huibers built the huge five-floor ship four years ago as a religious attraction in the Netherlands. The foundation is now raising money to fund this worldwide voyage.
The ark was designed as an interactive museum and event center based on the story from the Bible -- drawing about 3,000 visitors a day.
According to FoxNews.com, hauling the ark across the ocean would cost an estimated $1.5 million, according to a nonprofit recently established to help Huibers' effort.
“In 1992 I had a dream about the Netherlands being underwater a flood,” Huibers, 57, told FoxNews.com. “A short time after, I saw a book and I read it to my children. It showed pictures of the Great Flood. I said then that I want to build the ark. Thirteen years later, I had the means and time to do it.”
It's still unclear when exactly the ark, which can hold 5,000 people, could reach the West Coast.